Mass. GOP seeks to shore up flagging support
By adamg - 10/25/09 - 11:38 am
Republican state senators, all five of them, are pushing a bill that would require Massachusetts schools to teach students proper etiquette for handling an American flag, Associated Press reports.
A similar law went into effect in Utah this past June, with the added provision that the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" be placed in a prominent place in every school in the state. Missouri also has a similar law; the state offers possible lesson plans for following it, including:
Have students investigate and identify arguments concerning a constitutional amendment that would outlaw desecration of the United States flag.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat, has his own flag bill: It would forbid the state from ever flying the current flag of Vietnam, by requiring:
The only flag depicting the country of Vietnam that may be displayed in any state-sponsored public function or any public institution of learning shall be the flag of the former Republic of Vietnam.
Comments
Everyone mentioned in this
By anon (not verified) - 10/25/09 - 12:00 pm
Everyone mentioned in this topic should be voted out.
Um, okay
By SwirlyGrrl - 10/25/09 - 12:21 pm
Oooh, can I teach the part at the very end where you burn the flag? Can I? Can I? Pleeese ... pick me!!
We burned an old tattered flag in our campfire last summer. It is, after all, what you are SUPPOSED to do! My MIL gave it to us as we departed so we could give it an honorable end.
Can some random place in England now demand that only the Union Jack be displayed instead of the US Flag? Just more evidence of how solidly some in MA are too stuck in the past to even contemplate time moving on.
BTW, aren't these the same people who howl whenever Cambridge has some sort of nonbinding referendum on World Peace and End To This or That Pressing International Issue on the ballot?
I do not see why it should
By Matt Frank - 10/25/09 - 2:10 pm
I do not see why it should be required teaching in school, just as a time and instructional resources issue. We do have organizations like the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that will offer rules on flag handling as part of their programs. Many groups will even take flags off of peoples hands for them for proper ceremonial burning as well. In it's most basic element a ceremonial burning can be as simple as removing the blue banner from the stripes (thereby dismantling the flag) burning the stripes and then burning the blue banner while others look on in silence.
What I find odd is when you see flag wavers who have not read the flag code and in their zest to display the flag break several rules.
Agreed
By eeka - 10/25/09 - 3:46 pm
I have no problem with flag code (and am actually intrigued by most etiquette-related topics), but I feel like there's enough stuff that really needs to be taught with our time and money. I'd much rather see a broader curriculum about respect for our country and all other countries and cultures even when you disagree with some beliefs and actions.
I also feel like a well-written civics curriculum should cover how it's a constitutional right to choose to treat the flag with respect and to choose to NOT treat it with respect. So many well-meaning organizations (including branches of the scouts, fraternal organizations, veterans organizations, etc.) promote the mistaken idea that flag code is a regular-old law, as in, implying that there are criminal penalties for displaying a flag incorrectly that somehow override the first amendment.
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Ooh, cool
By eeka - 10/25/09 - 3:48 pm
While I don't like that Utah is spending time any money on this, nor do I like the subtext of the law that seems to be about promoting one group's idea of patriotism, I noticed that the text of their law does include:
(6) that each individual has the right to personal liberties associated with the flag so long as the rights of others are not violated;
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Mass GOP is scrapping the bottom of the barrel
By anon (not verified) - 10/25/09 - 2:16 pm
Wrapping the party in the flag is low. Real low. Aren't there any real issues (one's that won't splinter the GOP)?
Well at least they are not wasting time on fluff
By anon-a-mouse - 10/25/09 - 4:42 pm
I mean they could be trying to pass a bill on creating a state sandwich...because that is oh so important...
Hooray for Fluff
By SwirlyGrrl - 10/25/09 - 10:00 pm
How many jobs does the fluff factory provide? Manufacturing in Massachusetts!
so if the fluffernutter were not the state sandwich...
By anon-a-mouse - 10/25/09 - 10:33 pm
would fluff go out of business?
Put another way ...
By SwirlyGrrl - 10/25/09 - 10:41 pm
No.
However, job growth in MA does entail promoting local industries, but doesn't necessarily require duplication of something already in the curriculum frameworks for third grade social studies.
Mass GOP is tossing boulders from Glass Houses
By david_yamada - 10/25/09 - 7:25 pm
In an op-ed piece in today's Globe, Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei urges us not to focus on fluff legislation in the midst of the economic crisis:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/10/25/lawmakers_dont_focus_on_fluff/
This isn't fluff!
By adamg - 10/25/09 - 7:32 pm
Think of how many jobs have been lost because Massachusetts is so far behind other states in vital flag etiquette lessons!
Oh, wait ....
Flags all over the world...
By david_yamada - 10/25/09 - 8:01 pm
...are boycotting Massachusetts as we post.
If the GOP passed a "Buy American" rule also ?
By parsimonious (not verified) - 10/26/09 - 1:35 pm
Would one negate the other...rules of etiquette would not apply to a flag manufactured outside the US ?